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Matthew 13:41,50 writes:
The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom everything that causes sin as well as all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
what happens to something when you throw it into a fiery furnace? It gets destroyed. This is what jesus is refering to...the destruction of the wicked. Just as the days of Noah, God sent a flood to destroy all the wicked. Just as the cities of Sodom and Gomorah, God destroyed them. The thing that all these events had in common was that people were killed. This is what Jesus is refering to when he said they would be thrown into the 'fiery furnace'
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Matthew 23:33 writes:
You snakes, you offspring of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
the word translated 'hell' comes from the greek word Hades and Sheol. Both these words mean the grave. So Jesus is talking about 'death' again. You have to realize that the meaning ascribed to 'hell' is not the same meaning that Jesus had in mind. Later church teachers changed the meaning.
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Matthew 25:41, 46 writes:
Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels! Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.
fire is a symbol of destruction, so again Jesus is using 'fire' to describe what will happen to those who are 'accursed'. They will be destroyed forever as an 'eternal punishment' for their wrongdoing.
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Luke 16:22-26 writes:
And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
this verse is often used by christians to prove that hell is a real place, however this is a parable that Jesus gave to describe the spriritual condition of the 'rich man' and 'lazaras' the poor man.
It was a condition of spiritual approval by God. The rich man represented the religious teachers (scribes/pharisees) and the poor man represented the common people. The story is seen to be allegorical by the fact that rich man says
"father Abraham, dip your finger in water and drip the water on my tongue that I may find relief from my anguish"
the anguish was not a literal burning, for a few drops of water would in no way sooth the rich man...rather the anguish was that their authority as spiritual teachers of the law had been taken away from them and given to the poor people...or those who became Jesus diciples. These were now richly blessed by God, whereas the rich man had lost the favor & high position he once had.
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Revelation 14:10-11 writes:
That person will also drink of the wine of God’s anger that has been mixed undiluted in the cup of his wrath, and he will be tortured with fire and sulfur in front of the holy angels and in front of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.
revelation is full of symbolic language and this is one example of such language. You cannot take this literally, it is understood in its spiritual application...that would take me a while to explain but it basically has to do with 'the wild beast' or political organizations and those who choose to worship such organizations. They recieve the wrath of God in the form of 'torments'. These torments are not physical but spiritual.
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Revelations 20:11-15 writes:
Then I saw a large white throne and the one who was seated on it; the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them.
And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then books were opened, and another book was opened — the book of life. So the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds.
Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death — the lake of fire. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
here you have another verse that shows that hell is not a literal place. Notice how 'Hades' gave up those dead in it? Hades is 'hell'
It is death. Death gave up those in it...this is a prophecy about the future resurrection of all those who have ever died on the earth...the good and the bad.
So these dead ones have been freed from their condition from the place they went 'hades' or 'hell'
if hell were an eternal place of torment, why are these ones coming back from there???
Devils Advocate writes:
If you disbelieve in hell as a JW it is not based on the Bible of the mainline Christians but on your own JW dogma.
thats right in a way...its based on our understanding of the scriptures. The JW's have looked very carefully at the original meaning of the words in the OT and NT and they use the meanings as the words were when they were penned...not what they later became.
DevilsAdvocate writes:
The whole point is that I can not understand how Christians who believe in hell (which would not be you), can justify that God would be a good God for sending billions of people to be tortured in hell for eternity.
I agree with you, that is an issue. IMO it really shows that they do not really undestand God. The hell that they teach cannot be justified, it is an abhorent idea and one that God would certainly not want to be attributed to him.
The idea of burning anyone in a fire is something that God detests. The Pagan nations used to practice child sacrifice and at times even the isrealites got involved in this practice and have listen to what God told them
Jeremiah 7:30, 31.
They have set their disgusting things in the house upon which my name has been called, in order to defile it. And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, in order to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, a thing that I had not commanded and that had not come up into my heart.
For a christian to promote the idea that God wilfully would send anyone to a firey hell of torment is paramount to being an antichrist.
God detested that practice from the pagan nations, and he punished his own people severly when they did it, so how can anyone make the claim that this is something that God does? Its contrary to Gods personality and standards and morals and everything he is.
Edited by Peg, : No reason given.
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